


Hylia's Requiem

by Cavalierious



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Genre: Angst, Based on the Comic in the Hyrule Historia, F/M, Pre-Skyward Sword, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:41:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28414815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cavalierious/pseuds/Cavalierious
Summary: Her hero is dead. Hylia aches, her heart burns for the boy who’d become her hero. She’s never known such pain, this unwanted feeling that wracks her heart.
Relationships: Hylia/Hylia's Chosen Hero/Link
Kudos: 20





	Hylia's Requiem

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the first draft of this about seven years ago, I think. I dusted it off and reworked it, after finding it in some old files. I didn't tag major character death because he's already dead.

Her hero is dead.

Red stains the ground where he leans against an outcropping, his tunic soaking it up like it’s little more than a rag. 

It’s too late, he’s already gone, cast far into the beyond. Her people begged for him to come with them. Link only smiled, knowing that his time was over, letting loose his final breaths and looking on fondly as they rose high above the ground and into what would become Skyloft. 

Then, he’d fallen to the ground like a rock and faded away, a soft smile present on his lips. He’s the kind that only death brings a smile to, always far too stern whilst alive.

Hylia aches, her heart burns for the boy who’d become her hero. She’s never known such pain, this unwanted feeling that wracks her heart.

“Link,” says Hylia, pulling his lifeless body into her arms. There isn’t an answer, she doesn’t expect one. Still. “Link,” she repeats with more conviction, his name turning into a harsh gasp, pained and desperate. Link’s eyes remain stubbornly closed.

It is then that her grief turns to rage. Is there nothing that she can do? She is a Goddess, whim is at her fingertips! And yet, she already knows; all the magic in the world cannot help the man that she has come to care for. 

Hylia wonders if this is what love is. Hylians sing of it and write poetry of it, and she’s always wondered. She cares for her people and she cares for her land, but this is different. Her hero is different. At first a distraction, and then comfort. Now, he only brings pain. 

She pulls Link’s head into her lap and looks at his face, fingers ghosting across his high cheekbones. His skin is bruised and cut. And cold. 

Hylia sobs for her hero who is gone. 

It isn’t a waste, she tells herself. Link saved her land. He reforged her blade with his own hand, beaten back the evil, worked with her to imprison it. Link allowed her people, _their_ people, to retreat somewhere safe. Link’s selfless act of courage has touched every living thing, even Hylia’s cold heart. 

Link will never know the truth. 

“Your imprisonment was willed by the heavens,” she whispers, sobbing an apology and hoping that he will forgive her. “It was meant to make you strong, to transform you into one fit to wield the Sword of Evil’s Bane. And you did so well, tempering it with your spirit. You did so well, my precious Link.”

Hylia pauses to brush back his dirt-stained bangs. “You awoke it, you alone, and you will serve as its master from henceforth. This is only possible because you deeply love your land and our people.”

A sob rips through her, her chest constricting, tightening in a way that is so foreign to her. She has caused this, she and her sisters. Link was primped and primed for this final act of valor. Hylia understands now when her people speak of heartbreak. Her entire core feels as though it’s being split in two.

She leans forward, pressing her lips to his forehead, lingering against his cold skin. Not a trace of the warmth he once held. “Because of this,” continues Hylia, moving her mouth close to his ear, whispering to him secret words. “Your life has been full of suffering. I have watched you and felt your pain like a knife through my body.”

Perhaps it is a confession, enough so that her sisters would be mad. Hylia prays that Link will forgive her for such foolishness. Hylia pulls back to look at him once more. She’s seen him weary. She’s seen him full of hatred anger. Worried. A determined fool of conviction. 

He’s never looked peaceful as he does now. Death holds a sad sense of tranquility. Link was doomed to such a fate from the start.

Hylia finds it near impossible to let him go, so she sits for a long while. Waiting and watching. Running her hands through his hair. Whispering more secrets to him. Things she could have never told him were he still alive for fear of what others would say. Of what her sisters would have done. 

What her sisters will still do. 

Her hero grows heavy in her lap, and with him, her entire being follows. Hylia combs through his hair one last time like she’s trying to remember the coarseness of it. Fingers down his face to remember the sharp jut of his cheekbones. Underneath his proud jaw, thumbing across his lips, marveling at the chapped and peeling skin. 

There wasn’t ever a chance to kiss him.

“I will ensure that your gentle, heroic spirit will live on,” whispers Hylia. She cannot bring him back from the dead, but she can do this for him. She pauses. Hesitates. Thinks. For herself, as well. 

“And I—” Her throat thickens with words that will not come easily. “And I shall shed my divinity. The next time that we meet, I wish to stand before you as nothing more than a simple human. We will have time. We will be together, finally.”

It is an oath, uttered by the gentle Goddess Hylia, and she feels lightheaded as her magic shifts and sets. Her sisters will be angry. The future is always uncertain. But, with this, she knows that she will have her hero once more. 

But, Hylia is a fool, love-drunk, and love-weary.

She should have known better than to think that fate will ever let them be. 

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/_Cavalierious_)


End file.
